


Summer Breeze

by walkthatlonesomevalley



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/F, McWitham, mcandrews - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 22:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2000241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthatlonesomevalley/pseuds/walkthatlonesomevalley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gladys tells Betty about the summer of her 13th year…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Breeze

Summer Breeze

Gladys Witham walked away from the crowds. Her dainty shoes didn't take much of a liking to the sand dunes or the wooded path that made it's way to the ocean pier, so she took the heels off and began to walk flat footed on the sand, touching her feet only lightly to the thick powder that sooner resembled rock than fine sand like the sand she touched on a private beach in Paris just last summer. She made sure to mostly use her toes. Her heels never bending to the ground's need to be touched. She did like sand, but this sand was cruel and her memories couldn't have it.

Far off in the distance, Betty stepped away from Vera and Kate. Her emotions stirred within her and she could feel herself pull away from the crowd just as Gladys had done only moments before. She was staring off towards Gladys, almost pulled towards the water by some unexplainable need to be near it or her or both. She tapped a hand on Kate's shoulder and met Kate's nod of approval before walking off toward the water where Gladys was.

From this distance, Gladys looked like a damsel in one of those new Hollywood films that made everything so dramatic. Betty laughed at the sight of her there on the bridge. The wind was blowing at such a force that Gladys had to cling to herself to keep her clothes from flying away. On the old rickety bridge that had probably been there for decades, Gladys was secretly happy that she hadn't worn a hat tonight. Though it was fashionable, hats could be a bother.

"What's cookin' Princess?" Betty asked, panting. She had made her way to Gladys much sooner than expected. Betty was wearing old man shoes with her trousers, she had no problem with the sticky boardwalk or the reeds poking her feet out through the sand. The hand-me-down shoes from her father, could take on almost anything. Gladys looked down at them and smirked.

"Mmmm… Memories, I guess…" Gladys murmured, turning away. Betty watched her as she stared out off the wooden bridge over the water. There was a sort of canal or river, real close to the beach and Gladys was staring down at it, for miles it went on until it finally bent and you could see a house at the very edge of sight, a large house passed the water, on a hill of green grass. Betty couldn't help but see it and think that it must belong to a millionaire, a hermit no less.

"Memories…" Betty played. "I used to have those. Moving here kind of swallowed them up."

"You can't mean that." Gladys said tenderly, turning around to lean back on the wooden bridge rail. She was staring at Betty now with a mischievous smile on her face. In less than a second the blonde had snapped her out of her mood and she both hated and loved her for that, the girl had a magic about her.

"Sure I do. You think I grew up around here? There isn't much to remind me of home. Every now and then I may see a kid or hear a few cursing fathers, but this place aint no prairie and I haven't seen a farm since I left."

"That's because you don't get out, miss McRae." Gladys teased and pulled Betty's hand around her so that Betty was standing right in front of her, almost hugging her with her two arms trapping Gladys up against the bridge just the way that Gladys wanted. Betty had an urge to lean forward and close that gap but she resisted it wholly. Gladys always needed comforting and she didn't want to ruin their friendship by becoming a conquest. So many of Glady's affairs ended in banishment, Betty would be the last man standing, Betty knew that Gladys needed a last man standing.

"It's that shaky old house, isn't it? Gives me the heebie jeebies!" Betty confessed. She had been staring at Gladys for too long, so she flicked her eyes sideways and noticed that big house yet again, standing there like a warning or a certainty or a beacon of some kind. It was just foreboding and Betty couldn't help but stare at it.

"What house?" Gladys asked, her smirk growing and her eyes trailing downward. Gladys liked being stuck on this bridge with Betty as her pursuer.

Betty tugged at Glady's arm and spun her around until she was flat on the rail again, this time facing the water and the house and the wind that was blowing at them. This time Betty did lean forward until her body pressed to Glady's. She held her there warmly against the rail, shielding her completely from the wind.

"That mansion way out there. You were looking at it like it was a dream, or maybe… a nightmare." Betty said, in Glady's ear. Glady pulled Betty's arms around her waist and made her hug her.

"I lived there once." She almost yelled. The wind was roaring now and they were holding each other in place, fighting that wind with all their might. Both of them would still rather be out there alone by the water with the roaring wind than back in the carnival crowds where the wind was very mild and the conversation was all around them, buzzing around and over them like pesky flies they couldn't swat.

Betty pinched Glady's side and held her tight when she struggled. Of course she lived in that mansion, Betty thought to herself. She had met the only cliché in town, rich people were rich and that house was a mansion so of course Gladys Witham had been in it.

"It was only for a summer, I can't really remember. It was all very long ago."

"How long ago?" Betty asked, removing her hand to brush hair from between their faces. Gladys was relieved when Betty put her hand back on her waist, Betty could've easily moved away from her but she didn't.

"I must've been twelve or thirteen. I remember because my parents had tried to send me and Carol off to camp together. Carol met a boy that year and she almost… Well." Gladys looked over at Betty with a look in her eye that meant, Carol almost slept with him.

"Christ! Carol Demers?!"

"Yes, that's our lovely Carol. She's all propriety now, propriety and society. I told on her. Told my father." Gladys smiled, relenting with some regret about the situation.

"Something tells me Rollie Witham took this confession more serious than he would've if it was you doing the deed."

"You know my father!" Gladys laughed in the wind and Betty felt a knot in her stomach. She couldn't help but notice every now and then that Gladys made her feel differently. And she did know… She did know her father and her mother and her life. It was almost like Gladys was becoming a sister to her. They both had so many secrets they were keeping. They were so very close to one another.

"Daddy, whisked us out of there like a soldier saving two little girls from gunfire. What I really remember was how excited I was to use the phone. That summer I knew Daddy had gotten a phone put in, the first in the whole of Toronto. I really just wanted an excuse to use the phone. I really just wanted to leave. Camp was horrid. Filthy place with dirty people." Gladys admitted, looking soured by it all.

"No dirty little boys for the Princess then, huh?" Betty joked.

"No…" Gladys paused before continuing. "But… there was this girl…" She mentioned shortly before pushing off the bar and forcing Betty to follow her away from the water.

"W-wh-wait? What do you mean there was a girl?!" Betty stumbled after her. "You can't just say that and then leave!"

"It's hard to talk about, it was so long ago. Maybe I'm just like you, maybe all those memories have just faded away."

"Maybe you're a hack!" Betty yelled after her, causing Gladys to stop in her tracks and turn back around. The look on her face was one of flustered and intrigued confusion.

"Perhaps, talking about these things is something we Withams do not do." Gladys continued, heading back to the edge of the bridge and leaning on the wood rail again, this time avoiding the sights all around her and choosing instead to focus on Betty who had obviously been roused by this sudden and unexpected confession.

Betty sat down on the steps of the wooden bridge. From this position she could avoid a lot of the wind and also rest her legs, they had been standing all day at work and now this trip to the carnival, it was all very exhausting.

"I can't stand anymore. Sit with me?" Betty asked, jutting a hand up into mid-air. Gladys took her hand and allowed herself to be pulled down. Luckily her dress was long enough to avoid impropriety. "What do you mean there was a girl?"

"There was a girl… At camp. A girl I liked." Gladys said simply, shooting a knowing eye off to Betty, reminding Betty that she never ever talks about this.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, you're a girl. And I like you." Gladys said with the simplest most unreadable expression she had ever worn in Betty's presence. "I like you Miss McRae. I like you like I liked that girl. More than I can explain to a Rollie Witham or a Carol Demers or a Kate Andrews or a Vera Burr!" Gladys continued, fiddling with Betty's hand. "Don't you notice me? I crave to be around you… You must be able to feel it." Gladys took a deep breath inward. "Every time you go off with Kate, it's like my heart's been torn apart at the seams. But then, then there's this need for me to know that you're alright." Gladys smiled a half smile, her eyes closed and twitched and Betty wasn't sure if Gladys had caught a speck of dirt or perhaps she had a hard time speaking of this. "It's like we're best friends but more. Sisters even." Gladys confessed, brushing her eye swiftly taking care not to smudge her make-up.

"Gladys…" Betty said, she couldn't help the dopey half smile that had invaded her face.

"That summer," Gladys continued, she was committed now to telling the whole story and remembering it now was hard for her. "At camp, I decided to leave. I left that girl because of what I knew. I knew that my mother would have my head. A Witham debutante, would never be allowed to have a silly affair with a woman, no matter how childish or young. Just the thought of it would break her. She could be a monster, you know. Things were complicated. I was fighting with Carol. I had these feelings I couldn't explain. But I knew it was all wrong, you see?" Gladys paused to glance back at that house through the wooden planks of the bridge rail. "So, I came back. Left that girl to the filthy camp where girls and boys ran off to do things together alone in the woods. It was all fine and good, I had saved myself by denying myself the opportunity. Carol forgave me and she admitted that it wasn't even about the boy, it was about being first."

"She's a peach."

"I know… But then, I came back to this house on the water, this large empty house with all it's large empty rooms. I would play in the sand every day and float in the water in my new swim clothes. A couple of weeks passed this way, with me mostly on my own out here without a nanny, my brother still off at his all-boys camp. And then one day…" Gladys swallowed while remembering and Betty could feel her body tense with the story. "One day, there she was!"

"Who?"

"The girl." Gladys said, turning to Betty to show her surprised and amazed excitement.

"The girl from camp?"

"Mmmhmm. The girl from camp. The girl I had become addicted to without even trying. Here I had thought up a scheme to escape the kind of things I knew I would feel guilty about later, and then, like magic… The girl just appears in my life. I remember it vividly, I remember I was wading in the water with my pants rolled up over my knees and I had just decided that day that I didn't care about a thing my mother said. I was so very bored and lonely. I rushed into the water, with my whole body, and then just floated for a while, enjoying the fact that my clothes would be dirty and my mother would be livid that I wasn't ladylike and I looked and acted like a boy…" She smiled. "The next thing I knew, I looked up from floating, looked back at the shore and there was the girl from camp, just sitting on my towel and watching me. It was a dream, really. I had been thinking about her in the water and then there she was. She was real. It was all real and I couldn't deny it anymore."

"Where did she come from?"

"As it happens, she was the daughter of our new neighbor, whose house I never really saw. My mother caught wind of things much too quickly. Carol got back at me by blabbing on and on after seeing this girl with me only once on the sand. We had a good two weeks and then it was over. My father scared her off with all his righteous anger and we moved shortly after. I remember going on long walks, trying to find her again, but I never could find her. It was silly of me to try. It was the saddest and happiest summer of my life. That was so new to me. To be completely and totally preoccupied by someone else."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I could never tell anyone…" Gladys admitted, it hurt too much. "You remind me of her. The way we are together, it reminds me of that time." Gladys paused as if looking for the right words to say. "You make me feel safe Betty, happy, and safe." Betty looked back at Gladys for a moment in bewilderment. All these confessions and all this sadness, Betty was worried about Gladys.

"I'm glad." Was all Betty could say, she held Glady's hand and smiled meekly beside her, wondering only what this meant and thinking again about Kate who was back at the carnival, Kate who was probably only thinking about finding a boy who could date her at this very moment. "What were those two weeks like?" Betty asked, curiously, Gladys had mentioned having two weeks of happiness with this girl and she really wondered what happiness meant to Gladys Witham at the age of 13 or even at the age of 20.

"They were like this, really. Peaceful and serene. We would talk and ask each other questions. We would say things that we couldn't or wouldn't say to other people. There was no fear, no guilt. We just loved each other. It was the way I always imagined love would be. Being with her was the exact opposite of being with my family. It was easy, for once in my life! She was just easy. We trusted each other instantly and we both knew that as long as we were together everything was going to be alright." Gladys seemed to be in a serene state right at this moment. Betty looked down and notice that Gladys was pulling her fingers in and out of Betty's hand and lightly tracing her fingers onto Betty's. "We would touch like this too, everything about her was comforting."

Before Betty realized what was happening, Kate Andrews ran up to them suddenly and pulled Betty up from the stairs, dragging her off toward the crowd. Gladys let her go, she just stayed where she was and watched Betty stumble off with a confused smile and a blush in her cheek.

Gladys got up slowly and wiped her dress down in the front and in the back. She walked to her shoes and placed them back on her feet, kicking the sand off first with the heel of her hand.

"What do you think of those two?" Vera asked, looking on at Gladys and then back off towards Kate and Betty.

"They certainly are a handful." Gladys smiled, standing up tall and linking her arm with Vera's.

And just like that, the conversation was over. Betty spent the rest of the night silently turning over Glady's words in her mind while Kate tried to distract her with all her own amusements. Kate showed her all the carnival games and chatted away about the men her and Vera had met. Meanwhile Gladys and Betty both watched on silently, thinking their own shared thoughts and speaking very little. Occasionally they would see a dashing soldier off on leave and turn the conversation over to dripping daydreams fit to fill fantasy novels.

Later back at the rooming house after Gladys was long gone to James's apartment, Kate would get up the courage to ask what she had been meaning to ask all night.

"What did you gals talk about, back there on the bridge?"

"Memories, I guess…" Betty would admit. She knew she could never tell Kate the secrets that Gladys told her in confidence. Certainly not secrets like this one.

"Oh?"

"She told me about a time when she lived on the water near the carnival."

"That sounds nice."

"It did sound nice."

"Are you envious."

"No, not really." Betty admitted, oddly. She wondered why Kate's first question would involve being envious. It was like Kate didn't really know her at all and that feeling always stung at her, leaving her unhappy at the end of a conversation. She knew so much about Kate, so much that Kate did not want her to know. But Kate didn't even know the basics. Why couldn't Kate understand her like Gladys? Why couldn't things, for once, just be easy?

"I would be envious! Living on the water like that, in a big ol' house? It's all I ever dreamed of when I was young and I could dream…" Kate reminisced about being home and things seeming simpler somehow. Betty couldn't help but chastise herself for her previous feelings. Kate always thought of what she would feel first and then about what others would feel. It was that simple and it wasn't a hurtful way of thinking, it was just different. It was so different that Betty was still not used to it, but she loved Kate, she really did. Even with her envy, Kate managed to feel everything so strongly.

"It did sound nice. Living on the water like that… having servants instead of chores." Betty laid back down onto her bed. She couldn't help thinking about Gladys's lost summer.

"It's all magical really," Kate said, glancing back at Betty from the vanity where she was fiddling with Jewelry and playing with her reflection. "I can't imagine living that life… What it would feel like…" Kate wondered, turning round to face Betty. Betty sat up.

"I don't know…" Betty confessed.

The rest of the night went by in much of a rehearsed silence. Betty lit up a cigarette and Kate danced around the room to a record she had put on. Betty listened to Kate sing but she didn't stare at her or make note of it. Kate was being herself and Betty loved it. Soon it was late and at this point it was customary that Kate excuse herself to sleep across the hall in her own bed, the bed that was hers. But today Kate felt sad and she didn't know why.

"Can I sleep here tonight? I think I'm feeling lonely… All that talk… memories." She said, sadly.

"You can always sleep here, Kate." Betty confessed. She thought she had made Kate feel comfortable but every now and then things like this would happen and she would know that she never really succeeded in making Kate a home. Somehow Kate still felt like an intruder in her life when that's the furthest from the truth of the matter. In all honestly, it was Betty who felt like an intruder.

Kate laid down next to Betty and eventually they both fell victim to sleep, while on the other side of town Gladys Witham was reading old letters and smoking her own cigarettes and thinking of that one happy summer that had changed her for good.


End file.
